Limited Editions Club (LEC)
The Limited Editions Club (LEC) is a renowned publisher of finely crafted, limited-edition books, specializing in beautifully illustrated and designed editions of literary classics and significant works.
Founded in 1929 by George Macy in New York, the club launched amid the stock market crash but persevered through the Great Depression, World War II, and beyond. It operated as a subscription-based service, typically releasing 10–12 titles per year. Each book was produced in a limited run—most commonly 1,500 numbered copies (signed by the illustrator or other contributors in many cases)—featuring high-quality printing, original illustrations (often by prominent artists), fine bindings, and expert typography.
Under Macy’s leadership (until his death in 1956), the LEC emphasized affordability for subscribers while commissioning work from notable illustrators and artists such as Henri Matisse (e.g., Ulysses by James Joyce, 1935), Pablo Picasso (Lysistrata by Aristophanes, 1934), Salvador Dalí, Rockwell Kent, and many others. After Macy, his widow Helen managed it briefly, followed by ownership changes (including Boise Cascade in the 1970s). In 1978, Sidney Shiff took over, shifting toward smaller, higher-priced editions with even more elaborate production.
The club published around 589 titles total from 1929 until its last new releases around 2010. It remains celebrated among book collectors and fine press enthusiasts for its artistic collaborations and production quality.
The best places to find Limited Editions Club (LEC) books online are:
eBay Books
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Kidnapped Robert Louis Stevenson Limited Editions Club Signed Numbered LEC
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Pilgrim's Progress Bunyan William Blake 1941 LEC Limited Editions Club #842
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Arthur Conan Doyle SHERLOCK HOLMES Limited Editions Club 8 Vol Set 1950-52 LEC
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Silas Marner. George Eliot. Limited Editions Club(LEC). 1953 London Flawless
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LEC Jules Verne 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea Limited Editions Club Signed 1956
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LEC 1976 Robert Louis Stevenson Arabian Nights Limited Editions Club Signed Book
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Egyptian Book Of The Dead 1972 Limited Editions Club LEC 2-Volume Set
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LEC 1974 Feodor Dostoevsky A Raw Youth Limited Editions Club Signed Book 2vol
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LEC Limited Editions Club Franz Kafka Metamorphosis Jose Luis Cuevas Etcings Goa
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1973 LEC Oscar Wilde Lady Fan Limited Editions Club Signed By Tony Walton Book
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Limited Editions Club (LEC) Monthly Letter #47 April (1933)
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Book of Ecclesiastes Limited Editions Club 1968 Edgar Miller Illustrated LEC
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Limited Editions Club Three Cornered Hat 1959, Roger Duvoisin Signed LEC #1111
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Religio Medici LEC 1939 Signed John Henry Nash #1246/1500 Limited Editions Club
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Tales of Soldiers & Civilians Ambrose Bierce Landacre Limited Editions Club LEC
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Henry James Washington Square Limited Editions Club LEC
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LEC 1970 Jules Verne Around The Earth Moon Limited Editions Club Signed Book 2vl
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The Virginian Owen Wister 1951 Limited Editions Club LEC Signed Plantin Press
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Lot 2 LEC Limited Editions Club Eugene O'Neill Ah, Wilderness Stirnweis Signed
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Limited Editions Club~Leo Tolstoy~Childhood Boyhood Youth~1972 LEC Signed 1500
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LEC 1977 Victor Hugo The Battle Of Waterloo Limited Editions Club Signed Book
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Three Men In A Boat - Jerome K. Jerome Limited Editions Club (LEC) 1975 HC
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Robert Graves Poems, Limited Editions Club in Slipcase #366/2000 Signed LEC
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1935, Green Mansions by WH Hudson, Limited Editions Club LEC, Artist Signed
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LEC Limited Editions Club JUDE THE OBSCURE 25 /1500, illustrator signed, engravi
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SIGNED The Pilot James Fenimore Cooper Limited Editions Club 1968 LEC w/ Letter
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The Prairie LEC 1940 Signed John Steuart Curry #1246/1500 Limited Editions Club
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1935 LEC 'SLOVENLY PETER' BY MARK TWAIN FRITZ KREDEL LIMITED EDITIONS CLUB
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Daphnis and Chloe LEC 1934 Signed Ruth Reeves #1246/1500 Limited Editions Club
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1934 Limited Editions Club Arabian Nights Richard Burton Valenti Angelo 6 Vol
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Limited Editions Club A Prospectus of the Seventh Series of Its Fine Books / 1st
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The Ten Great American Classics Limited Editions Club
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Limited Editions Club Monthly Letter Number 401 The Books of Ballads
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Praise of Folly Erasmus 1943 Limited Editions Club Lynd Ward Slipcase Letter
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Rare [Limited Editions Club] The Poems of William Shakespeare (2 Vols.) LEC 1941
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Down by the Riverside ~ Richard Wright. Limited Editions Club LEC 2001
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LEC 1979 The Lyrical Poems Of Francois Villon Limited Editions Club Signed Book
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The Last Days of Pompeii LEC 1956 Limited Editions Club #662 Signed Slipcase Ill
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Remarque All Quiet on the Western Front LEC 1969 Signed John Groth Slipcase
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THE SIR ROGER DE COVERLY PAPERS The Limited Editions Club
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SIGNED Tegner FRITHIOF'S SAGA Limited Editions Club (LEC) 1953 HC SLIPCOVER
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SIGNED The Living Talmud Limited Editions Club 1960 Ben-Zion LEC #1027 w/ Letter
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Limited Editions Club The Woman in White Wilkie Collins 1964 Slipcase LEC
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Paradise Lost and Paradise Regain'd: John Milton (Limited Editions Club)
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Signed George Macy Letter Advertising the Limited Editions Club Shakespeare Set
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Limited Editions Club ZULEIKA DOBSON Beerbohm 1960 SIGNED George Him w/ Slipcase
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Les Misérables Victor Hugo 1938 Limited Editions Club Illustrated Heritage Press
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LEC Washington Square by Henry James 1971 Limited Editions Club SIGNED 593/1500
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LIMITED EDITIONS CLUB~CAMILLE by Alexandre Dumas 1955~Signed Bernard Lamotte
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Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand ~ Limited Editions Club ~ Louis Untermeyer
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